Tatius, ACHILLES, one of the Greek romancers whose date may be safely put before the middle of the 4th and after the beginning of the 3d century A.D. He belonged to Alexandria, and was much influenced by the rhetorical school of poetry, which owned Nonnus as its master. Snidas tells us that he became not merely a Christian, but a bishop, after writing his romance of Leueippe and Cleitophon, but the accuracy of this may well be doubted. Further it is more than doubtful whether he was the author of treatises on etymology and astronomy. His romance comes next to the Theagenes and Chariclea of Heliodorus in time, and perhaps in merit. The author describes himself as gazing at the picture of Europa in the temple of Venus in Sidon, when he is accosted by Cleitophon, who straightway tells him his whole adventures in eight books. The plot is sadly lacking in probability, and grows positively wearisome towards its long drawn out conclusion. Its artistic development is marred by the introduction of much irrelevant discourse on painting, sculpture, and natural history, and moreover much of this is mere wordy rhetoric. The delineation of character is feeble to a degree—the hero a mere shadow of a man, uninteresting in everything save devotion to his mistress, who is much better drawn in every respect. Still the dawn of love in Cleitophon's heart is well described, and the doubts and fears characteristic of the passion are well realised, and reveal a striking knowledge of the human heart. Many of the situations are worse than indelicate, but the morality of the purpose, so characteristic of the Greek romances even in their indecencies, is evident throughout. The Greek is elegant, yet unaffected.
Editions are in the Erotici Scriptores Graeci by Hirschig, Le Bas, and Boissonade (Paris, 1856), and Hercher (Leip. 1858-59); also separately, by F. Jacobs (Leip. 1821). There is a French translation in Ch. Zévort's Romans Grecs (Paris, 1856); an English, by the Rev. R. Smith in Bohn's Classical Library (1855). See A. Chassang, Histoire du Roman dans l'Antiquité Grec. et Lat. (Paris, 1862); E. Rohde, Der Griech. Roman und seine Vorläufer (Leip. 1876); and Dunlop's History of Prose Fiction, edited by Henry Wilson (2 vols. 1888.)